August 19, 2013 01:25 AM

Marketing is the number one skill to have. If your marketing is working correctly, it should be able to: position you as the expert in your field, educate your customers about how to purchase your product or service, keep you from making heavy discounts to obtain business, and have customers decide, “I would be crazy to do business with anyone but you!”.

The Marketing Test:

Get all of your marketing pieces together: cards, brochures, flyers, etc. Next, access your site. With all of your marketing pieces in front of you, let’s test your marketing and see how you think it stands up!

1. What makes you UNIQUE (you can’t say “service!”)?
2. Why should I do business with you (you can’t say “service!”)?
3. Is what you are saying believable?
4. Is your message filled with “I” “me”, “mine”, “our” “us” words?
5. Who else can say what you say?
6. Is there an offer?
7. Is it educational?
8. Is it filled with adjectives, generalities, and platitudes?
9. Remove your name and insert the name of a competitor - does the ad still work?
10. Do you take credit for things you are supposed to do?
11. Do you measure your results?
12. What conclusion do you want them to come to?
13. Is there a direct response trigger? A call to action?
14. Does it answer the question WIIFM (What’s in it for me?)?

The goal is to drive traffic to your site where you continue the education process, constantly elevating, separating, differentiating, and distinguishing yourself from all competitors.